Asylum seekers on Christmas Island are more depressed, scared and anxious than those being housed in the world's second-largest refugee camp, says Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Senator Hanson-Young, who has been on the island for four days after visiting the Za'atari camp on the Syrian border, says the Abbott government is creating a new generation of damaged asylum seekers.

She cited the case of a four-year-old Iranian girl who arrived on Christmas Island ''bubbly and talkative'' six months ago, but who had now withdrawn completely, and could only utter the word ''jail'' during a 30-minute encounter.

The senator also claimed children on Christmas Island were not being sent to school and were becoming more depressed and vulnerable as they saw their parents' state deteriorate and, in some cases, resort to self-harm.

Many of those on Christmas Island had been there six months or more without any indication of when their claims for refugee status would begin to be assessed, Senator Hanson-Young said. And Australia faced a ''baby boom'' of stateless children with as many as 100 pregnant women in detention.

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She said both Nauru and Manus Island were completely ill-equipped to meet the needs of almost 2000 Christmas Island asylum seekers, who would be transferred to these detention centres under the government's ''no exceptions'' policy.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has consistently defended the deterrent-based ''stop the boats'' policy, saying it was responsible for the dramatic drop in arrivals at Christmas Island.

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Although Senator Hanson-Young was forbidden from taking photographs of those in detention on the island, she was given a self-portrait of the girl behind a fence.

''I've never experienced a child of that age so depressed and so inside herself,'' she said of the child, whose pregnant mother was transferred to Darwin three months ago and was unable to speak to her husband or daughter for a month of that time.

''Most of the families I spoke to have been here at least six months and are at a crashing point mentally, physically, emotionally,'' she said. ''The certainty of being sent to Manus or Nauru is weighing heavily on their minds.

''I can't see how they can last much longer in detention as capable and healthy people. It is already at breaking point.''

While she described Christmas Island conditions as similarly harsh to those at refugee camps she visited in Lebanon and Jordan, she said the level of anxiety on Christmas Island was ''so much worse''.

''When I was in Jordan in the Za'atari camp, with 120,000 Syrian refugees, they feel safe and the whole camp is run to help people. Here people are being punished and they know they're being punished. The attitude is very different.''

She said it was summed up by a 15-year-old Syrian boy who had asked her why he was being punished. The boy wanted to study to be a doctor and told of seeing many dead bodies outside his home before his family fled.